good lord

i have been a horrendous blogger.

here's a bit of a photo diary from our recent weekend in adelaide. when i say recent i mean nearly a month ago. whoopsies.

dad and ems, if you're reading this, i'm dead. KIDDING can you please email me your photos from the rest of the trip after our camera died and i had a tantrum? thank you x a million x x

we have the same middle name, no big deal.

valda may rowntree. or grandma whitehair if you're max or tom.

my grandma.

isn't she just the cutest? and just quietly, i don't think the middle name is the only thing we have in common. we talked about it today. we decided we're the clumsiest people we know. and we can both cry at the drop of a hat. and we love cooking shows.

she is everything grandmas are supposed to be.

she's kind and sweet and she knits and she always has bandaids and hankies and nail files in her bag when you need them. she feeds the dozens of birds that call out to her from her back steps every morning. and she makes the best mashed potato. and she sings and whistles as she meanders around the house. and she has the best collection of audrey hepburn movies you've ever seen. and she always has the freshest magazines and papers at her house. her house that hasn't changed a single bit since i've been alive. and i'm totally ok with that.

i still remember the days i used to be shorter than her.

and the days and days i used to spend at her house in the school holidays when she would take me to museums and galleries and exhibits and zoos and aquariums. and spoil me rotten with mcdonalds and ice cream for lunch.

visiting her house is still just as excellent as it was when i was younger. except now, instead of loving her foxtel for the endless cartoons, i love poring over her photos she's collected over her 85 years.

today, i learnt that her mum used to think she was the height of fashion, looking at pictures of her cutting around in furs every chance she got. i also learnt that my grandma used to be quite a star performer as she showed us photos of her in costume, ready to go on stage for the grand opening celebrations at luna park.

we looked at photos from her wedding and laughed about the "olden day" fashions, like long gloves and bonnets. she told us about how she used to call grandpop "a skinny pom, and he used to call me a fat aussie!".

we talked about her dad and her brother, looking at photos and comparing their features to members in our own rowntree clan.

we found some war bonds filed away with her photos. yeah. war bonds. i don't know what you did today, but i touched some paper from 1947. i felt like i should have had white gloves on.

we giggled a lot about grandpop. the phrases "let's just tell grandpop we had sandwiches for lunch", "what do you want for breakfast?" asked whilst eating dinner, "god, strike me" and "can you pass the salt?" had us laughing until our eyes watered, imagining him looking down and rolling his eyes at how ridiculous we were all being.

so this is my grandma. and i love her to smithereens. if i turn out half as lovely as her, i'll be doing great.

hey, you two, stop growing up so fast

my little brothers max and tom sent boyfy and i a gorgeous card this week in the mail, inside, their newest portraits from school.

i love those two to pieces. and then some.

i love that i remember the days they were both born and now they're writing me cards ( !!! what happened to those little teeny, tiny babies?! ) and i love thinking about all the times people used to think they were my own little offspring. god bless those strong rowntree genes.

i love that they call boyfy "Bondi". with an i. like bondi beach. too cute.

i love that when i look at photos of the two of them, i see dad and em. and even though i'm a grown up now, i still wish i had my parents close, and i miss them a lot.

needless to say, this little baby is now taking pride of place on our fridge. and i'm beginning to think a weekend to adelaide might be in order.

thanks max and tom, for being the cutest little spunks i know.

love, bel x x

p.s. i love your photo xxx ooo

you can always tell how awesome my weekend has been by the amount of photos of junk food i take.

This weekend I:

• made mexican for dinner
• watched a lot of 30 Rock
• slept in a little bit, which was lovely
• got a fresh mani pedi which is a bit of a luxury considering i'm well and truly in lockdown mode, saving my tail off for NYC in 4 months ( !!!!! )
• ate some pizza and watched some marilyn monroe movies with a lovely gf of mine
• ate lots of twisties and watched some marilyn monroe movies with a lovely gf of mine
• ate cookie dough and watched some marilyn monroe movies with a lovely gf of mine
• had sunday yum cha with my family and caught up over coke spiders
• went to see bridesmaids with some *unofficial* bridesmaids :) it was so freaking hilarious. I hope Katrina's wedding/hen's party/pretty much everything turns out like that!
• had dinner with boyfy's mamma for her belated birthday celebrations

Next weekend I:

• will be a homebody

x x